In this section of the blog, you can find information and opinions about car sales in China. Stay up-to-date with which cars are selling the best and what we think future models will do.
* Do you want to know more about a car sales in a certain market? Or do you want an analysis of car sales in a certain car market? Let me know and I will write about it!
* Do you want to write about car sales in your country/continent? Be my guest, send in your article and I will publish it!

Most Americans think of Buick as an all-American brand, best known for its large comfortable luxoboats that mostly appealed to senior citizens in the US and Canada. What they don’t know is that besides the 220.000 cars a year in the US and another 17.000 or so in Canada, Buick produces and sells over a million cars a year in China. Well, perhaps thanks to the UAW protests over GM’s plan to import the Envision SUV into the US from China, some more people are starting to become aware of that fact now.

So what kind of vehicles does Buick sell in China? A few models are quite similar to those in the US, like the Regal, LaCrosse, Encore and Verano, although the latter is a bit confusing, as the US Verano is called the Excelle GT in China, while the model that’s sold in China as the Buick Verano (Weilang in Chinese) is a China-only model positioned between the US Verano (Excelle GT) and the Regal. There’s also a hatchback version available, the Excelle XT, which is a rebadged Opel/Vauxhall Astra.

Besides the Weilang, Buick offers three more China-only models, the GL8 MPV, the Envision SUV and the Excelle. The latter has been Buick’s most successful nameplate in the world for almost a decade, with more than 2,5 million sales since its launch in 2003. You read that right, Buick still sells a compact sedan that was first introduced 13 years ago. To make matters worse, the Excelle isn’t actually a real Buick, it’s a rebadged Daewoo Nubira, which has been sold in the US as the Suzuki Forenza from 2003 to 2009. [Read more…]

Car sales in China increased 8,7% in 2015 to top 20 million units for the first time ever, as the tax break on small vehicles in Q4 helped to double the 4,3% increase in the first three quarters, after an unprecedented three consecutive months of declines from June to August. This was a result of the slowing economy and a stock market crisis, which has taken away a potential 500.000 car sales, according to analysts from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Car purchase limits in 7 major cities due to congestion and subsequent air quality concerns have also cost a potential 2 million vehicle sales. As a result, 2015 is the second consecutive year that the Chines car market grows slower than the year before, and with tax break having ended on December 31st, this year may prove to be a difficult year again, unless the government pulls another subsidy rabbit out of their hat.

As you’ll know when you’ve followed the Chinese car market on this blog, SUVs are the main reason for this boost, as Chinese car buyers have shied away from sedans. Sales of crossovers and SUVs soared 52% to 6,22 million units, and MPVs increased 10% to 2,11 million sales, while sedans slumped 5,3% to 11,72 million sales.

The share of foreign brands in the Chinese market has shrunk by 4,2 percentage points, a landslide change in such a huge market, as it means that foreign car brands only added 338.000 units of volume last year for an increase of 2,8%, while the local Chinese automakers added over 1,45 million units of volume for an increase of 23,3%. [Read more…]

China car sales are up 21,5% in December 2015 to 2.389.313 units, which makes it the third year in a row that December is the biggest month of the year in China. However, we have to note that the volume was artificially boosted by the government temporary tax cut on small vehicles (engines smaller than 1,6 liters) in Q4. Still, the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of 23,7 million units was the highest of the year, and in fact the highest ever recorded in China. However, as the tax cut from 10% to 5% has been suspended on January 1st, we can expect a backfire effect in January.

Chinese brands have benefited the most from both the tax cut and the switch from sedans to crossovers, as the share of local brands has never been as high as in December, at more than 40%. It has to be noted that Chinese brands traditionally score better in the last month of the year compared to their foreign competitors. For example Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. or BAIC, has sold almost 17% of its total 2015 volume of its BAW, Huansu, Senova and Weiwang subbrands in December, scoring a nice 8th place in the brand ranking, compared to 15th overall. [Read more…]

A new year is always a nice opportunity to reflect on the past year and in our case, that means looking at which cars have sold disappointingly in 2015 and which do we expect to disappoint in 2016. We’ll also look at which cars or brands have surprised from a sales volume point of view in a separate article. We’ve already covered the surprises and disappointments in Europe, now let’s take a look at the Chinese car market.

Which cars had disappointing sales in 2015:

Qoros

The Chinese-Israeli brand just doesn’t seam to gain any traction. Sure, sales have doubled in 2015, but that’s thanks to the addition of a second model, the Qoros 3 City SUV, and the increase comes from a low base of just 6.700 units in 2014. But that means the brand is still at less than 10% of its capacity and its initial goal of 150.000 annual sales.

As I’ve written before, Qoros has positioned itself in a difficult niche, trying to lure image-conscious Chinese buyers away from import brands by focusing its marketing on its European designers and engineers, but as a new brand it simply doesn’t have the status nor the heritage to compete with established import brands. Because of this “premium” strategy, Qoros also doesn’t appeal to budget-conscious buyers of domestic brands, for whom Qoros doesn’t offer enough value for money.

In 2016 the brand will launch a third model, the Qoros 5 SUV, but it really needs to get its marketing straight and set the price of the new model sharp. First build brand awareness, then a loyal customer base by selling high-quality products for a non-premium price and when its brand image rises as a result of customer experiences, so may their prices, but that will take years. There’s no shortcut.

Enranger, the brand launched in July by Weichai Auto, quickly expanded to two models in its first year and in its first 5 months of sales Enranger has already sold more vehicles than Qoros in the 11 months of its second year.

A new year is always a nice opportunity to reflect on the past year and in our case, that means looking at which cars have sold surprisingly well in 2015 and which do we expect to surprise in 2016. We’ll also look at which cars or brands have disappointed from a sales volume point of view in a separate article. We’ve already covered the surprises and disappointments in Europe, now let’s take a look at the Chinese car market

Which cars sold surprisingly well in 2015:

Domestic small and compact crossovers

A lot of brands and models have done exceptionally well in China last year, but the models that stand out from the crowd are the affordable crossovers from Chinese brands, with the Baojun 560 as the absolute pinnacle. Deliveries of the 560 started in July, it was the brand’s best selling model by September and in October Baojun (a Joint Venture between General Motors and SAIC) sold more than 30.000 units of the crossover, and again in November, totaling over 110.000 sales in just 6 months time.

The biggest domestic automaker Changan also benefited hugely from its already existing two crossovers: the CS35 and CS75 more than doubled to a combined 323.000 sales in 11 months, helping the Changan brand move from #10 best selling brand in 2014 to #7 last year.

Other brands have seen their sales multiply thanks to their crossovers, some of which take more than 90% of brand sales within a few months after their launch. The most striking example is the GAC Trumpchi GS4, which sold more than 108.000 units from May till November and made up 87,8% of GAC Trumpchi brand sales in November. But also the Brilliance V3, which sold over 54.000 units in that same time period and took 81,4% of brand sales, cannibalizing its larger sibling Brilliance V5. To a lesser degree the list continues with the MG GS, which sold over 37.000 copies between February and November, and the Leopaard CS10, which sold over 29.000 times between April and November and boosted Leopaard brand sales more than fivefold in November. Soueast introduced the DX7 Bolang in August and already sold over 21.000 units of the crossover, which helped Soueast from a YTD score of -14% at the end of July to +17% at the end of November, when sales more than doubled. The Yema T70 is the record holder of relative sales, taking 90,6% of total brand sales in November.

And then there’s Haval, the SUV brand from Great Wall. Sales of their line-up of 7 crossovers sold 50% more units than in 2014 and the brand broke through the half a million sales barrier for the first time, and did that in October already, and they’re likely to finish 2015 with 650.000 sales. That means they’ve gone from #16 in the brand ranking (and 6th domestic manufacturer) in 2014 to #10 (and 3rd domestic).

A total of 2,9 million SUVs from domestic Chinese brands have been sold in the first 11 months of 2015, that’s an increase of a whopping 87,7% on the same period of 2014, while the overall market is up “just” 7,27%.

As we’re approaching the final few weeks of 2015, it’s becoming clear that this has been another great year for the automotive industry, most notably in the two largest markets in the world: China and the US. Both markets are on track to set new volume records in 2015, but have taken different paths towards those records. The previous US sales record was set in 2000, when automakers sold 17,4 million cars but never reached that figure ever since. At that time, the US market was more than 30 times bigger than the Chinese car market, but the latter hasn’t stopped growing ever since. And at an amazing pace: 27,5% per year on average. As a result, the Chinese passenger car market caught up with that of the US in 2013, and is set to break through the 20 million units barrier for the first time this year.

Car sales in China are back in boom-mode in November: after a 15% gain last month, November sales are up 23,3% to over 2,1 million units, the highest monthly figure this year. November sales were helped by the tax cut on smaller models the Chinese government introduced in October, as sales of vehicles eligible for the tax cut totaled 1,56 million vehicles, up 29%. The Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Selling Rate (SAAR) was up from 19 million units in September and 21,8 million units in October to 22,5 million units, close to the January score. As a result, the Chinese car market is up 7,3% so far this year, so although December also expected to be a blockbuster month, it’ll be a stretch to assume we’re going to end 2015 with double digit growth, but nothing is impossible in China. Still, we’re only 772.000 units off the 2014 full year figure, and with over 2 million sales expected in December, we are going to get a new Chinese sales record in 2015.

All segments of the market showed improvements this month, unsurprisingly led by the SUV segment, as demand for compact crossovers boosted SUV and crossover sales 72% to over 716.000 units, while sedan sales were up 9,1% to 1,17 million units and MPV sales were up 8,8% to over 218.000 units. The market share of local manufacturers was slightly down on October to 39,3%.

In November, Volkswagen finally rebounded from its 8-month slump with sales up 37% thanks to year-best sales for the Bora, Lamando and Lavida sedans, but due to slow sales earlier this year VW is still down 4% year-to-date. Buick consolidates its second place with sales up 22% in November thanks to the new-for-this-year Verano and Excelle GT and the Envision SUV, which will be exported to the US next year. Nissan moves from 8th place year-to-date and 5th place in October to 4th in November, boosted by the instant success of the Lannia sedan, introduced last month and already passing the 10.000 unit mark, without cannibalizing sales of the brand’s other small and compact sedans Sunny and Sylphy. Crossovers also helped Nissan become the best selling Japanese brand in China this month, as the Qashqai, X-Trail and Murano lodged solid year-over-year improvements. [Read more…]

The Chinese government’s tax cut to boost sales of smaller cars has helped the car market to a 15% gain in October, to almost 1,9 million units, making its the second best month of the year, after January. The Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Selling Rate (SAAR) was up from 19 million units in September to 21,8 million units in October, also the second highest of the year.

The tax cut, from 10% to 5% on cars with engines up to 1,6 liters, was introduced October 1st. As a result, compact car sales were up 17%, as 69% of all cars sold in October fell within those criteria. The effects of the tax cut are expected to last at least through the end of this year, making sure the the Chinese car market still on track for yet another record breaking year. All segments of the market were back in the black this month, although not equally: SUVs continued to surge, up 61% to 622.000 units, while MPVs were up 4,6% to 193.000 and sedan sales were up by only 0,2% to 1,05 million units. The market share of local manufacturers was up 3,4 percentage points on October 2014, to 39,5%.

European brands

BMW October sales in China, including Rolls Royce and Mini, were up 4,8% to 41.500 vehicles, of which 22.894 of its three locally produced models, up 3,5%. Year-to-date, BMW Group sales are up 2,3% to 384.176 units, of which 61% locally built. That means Mercedes-Benz has closed in again this month, with 33.088 sales, up 43%. Year-t0-date, Mercedes is up 32% to 299.375 units, with two thirds China-made. And with local production ramping up of the GLC as a replacement to the GLK, Mercedes is expected to carry its momentum for the next couple of months. Audi remains the largest luxury brand in China, with sales of 47.236 locally produced cars in October, an increase of 14% year-on-year, as the brand is down 2% to 412.575 local units year-to-date.

Porsche saw a sales increase of 44% in October to 4.950 imported cars, and year-to-date Porsche China sales are up 37% to 49.190 units. As a result, China has passed the US as Porsche’s biggest market, thanks to its SUVs Macan and Cayenne. Like Porsche, China has overtaken the US as Volvo‘s biggest market as well, although in October, the US was slightly back ahead again, as Volvo China sales edged up just 2% to 7.066 units, of which 78,5% locally produced. [Read more…]

On Wednesday Hyundai finally announced what many have been speculating for years: that it will spin off a new luxury brand under which it will sell its Genesis, Equus and Coupe models. The brand will be named after the most popular model of the three, the Genesis, taking advantage of the name recognition it has earned since its 2008 debut. It will be the first major luxury brand created since Infiniti, the last of the Japanese luxury brands, came to the market in 1989.

So, what should we think of this? Does Genesis have a chance to succeed in the increasingly crowded luxury market, or does it not have a snowball’s chance in hell? Here are three reasons why I think it could succeed: [Read more…]

After three months of declines, Chinese car sales have rebounded into positive territory in September, up 6,8% to almost 1,7 million locally produced models, with a Seasonally Adjusted Annualized selling Rate (SAAR) at 19 million units, the highest it’s been since last May. As we’ve seen for almost the entire year, the only segment to boost sales is the SUV segment, up 59% to 566.500 units, while the other segments continue to slide, at -11% to 951.500 sales for sedans and -4,1% to 161.300 for MPVs. Year-to-date, just over 13,8 million domestically produced cars have been sold in China, an increase of 5,4%. As the Chinese government has cut the purchase tax on small cars (with engines of 1,6 liters or less) in half, effective from October until the end of next year, car sales in China are set to remain robust for the rest of the year.

EVs and Plug-In Hybrids had an excellent month in September, with EV sales quadrupling to more than 19.000 units and PHEV sales up 230% to 8.800 units, both thanks to tax incentives of (local) governments. In the first three quarters of 2015, combined EV and PHEV sales are up 330% to 87.500 full electric cars and 49.200 plug-ins.